What I've been up to

It's been a while since coming on here, mostly because of the end of the school year being loaded with schoolwork and co-op interviews (and everything in between).  

In June, I picked up a seriously awesome project for my English class, where I was actually able to translate a piece I wrote during the year into another medium, so naturally I chose to paint something.  I used my initial blog post about Pop as my original piece and took a photo we had of him to paint, and turned it into this.  It was a risk, but it was so worth it in the end.  

After the school year ended, I hit a serious artist's block.  I moved into a new college dorm for a 10 week self-driven research project.  I designed and am in the midst of conducting said research project.  And in the middle of that, I accepted my first co-op position (woohoo!!) and picked up some shifts with them during the week, all while facing the city heat and fun that not having classes brings.  All of these are great, don't get me wrong, but I definitely hit an artistic wall.  

I've done a few small things, though.  

And just when I though inspiration struck, I began to paint this tribute to citrus...  

And, after not touching this piece for two weeks after this photo was taken, I picked it up again.  But this time, I just painted over it completely, accepting that currently my inspiration lies with something that is not this.  

So here is my photographic inspiration from Lake Como in Italy from my trip there last summer.  I came across this photo in my cameral roll the other day, and let me tell you it was like I struck gold.  This photo is what monochromatic landscape dreams are made of- not to be dramatic or anything.    

So I began painting this, and I was suddenly inspired again. I picked up a brush and was excited again.  Yeah, maybe it took two months for me to figure out exactly what I wanted to do, but that's just the way life works.  What I realized is that while I wasn't producing anything I was in love with after I painted Pop's portrait, I became recharged for my next big project.

I'll be sure to post the finished painting, but for now, you'll just have to wait.